For all the hype about hybrid models, wellness apps and even deeper things like meaningful work, the thing employees often value most at work might be the oldest and simplest... friendship. 

KPMG’s Friends at Work Survey shows just how much the idea of having mates at the office – or even on Zoom – matters. Four out of five professionals say workplace friendships are important, and most go further, linking them directly to their engagement, satisfaction and performance. Nearly seven in ten believe close work friends make them better at their jobs. Stats that should get any discerning CHRO listening.  

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Productivity and output, as important as they are, aren’t even the whole story. Seventy-eight per cent of those surveyed said friendships are vital for mental health, whether it is having someone to listen during a rough patch, or just adding a bit of joy to the day. Yet a quarter of professionals still report feeling isolated at work, with women more likely than men to experience loneliness. 

“Those workplace rants among colleagues – are they toxic or a much needed form of catharsis”? 

The limits of digital culture 

Most employers have doubled down on digital tools to hold teams together. But the survey makes clear that software cannot do the heavy lifting of friendship. Almost six in ten employees believe technology has created an over reliance on digital channels and diluted down the human interactions that build real trust. Remote workers in particular struggle to make friendships stick. A third admit it feels near impossible. 

If culture is reduced to a steady diet of Slack updates and Zoom calls, then loneliness and isolation become the byproduct. Companies may think they have built a hybrid culture when, oftentimes, what they've built is distance.

Work Friendships by the Numbers: KPMG Survey

Friendship is not a perk, it is infrastructure. The data below shows how close colleagues drive engagement, satisfaction, and mental health, and why overreliance on digital tools and the cost of socialising are getting in the way. Use it as your quick brief for what to design, fund, and measure next.

Source: KPMG, Workplace Friendships Play a Critical Role in Employee Mental Health, Job Satisfaction (press release, Nov 19, 2024). KPMG

Money, time and the social squeeze 

Another quiet barrier is money. More than half of respondents said personal finances or the wider economy limit their ability to socialise with colleagues outside work. That means employers cannot simply leave friendship to Friday drinks. If people are counting the cost of a drink or a meal, then organised, inclusive and low-cost events become even more important for building the underlying social glue of the organisation.  

“Culture does not just happen. It often needs underwriting and careful cultivation”. 

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What employees actually want 

When asked how employers should help, the answers were refreshingly straightforward. Social activities and employee resource groups top the list, followed by office layouts that encourage casual encounters. The bottomline is simple; employees expect their organisations to create the conditions where friendships can form. 

The problem is the gap between rhetoric and reality. Most professionals believe their company talks up the value of friendships and caring. However, far fewer believe leaders do much about it. The other issue is inclusivity. Those afterwork drinks can be a wonderful and highly social release for some, and a total nightmare for others. If the idea is to include everybody every time, it’s not an easy task.  

Having, myself, managed teams in Singapore, Dubai, and the United Kingdom, I can attest to how tricky it can be to get this right. Some drinks in a local pub after work may feel like a no-brainer after a long office day in London, but isn't that way in Singapore. As for Dubai, no pubs and different attitudes towards drinking rule this out completely. So what then?

Leadership and loneliness 

For employees without close work friends, managers take on an outsized role. A third of respondents said their group leader has the biggest impact on their happiness at work. Yet many managers are seen as purely functional – good at coaching and teaching, less good at showing genuine care. 

For employer branding, this is a blind spot. Values on a careers page mean little if everyday interactions feel transactional and contradict what was sold. Friendship, or at least the possibility of it, is what makes culture credible. If nobody in your workplace were friends, how do you think you'd describe the culture if asked?

And it works both ways. As they say... it’s lonely at the top. Being a manager and knowing where to draw the line between what’s seen as professionalism and when friendships get more ‘real’, is tightrope walking act. This is an area where I feel middle and upper management levels need to have a more open dialogue. Supporting managers, at least with training and guidance, could give them the skills and guardrails they need to get this right more often.

The EBN Dispatch Podcast | Employer Branding & Talent

The EBN Dispatch is your no-fluff podcast on employer branding, talent attraction, retention, and company culture served with dry wit and sharper-than-average insight.

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Why this matters for employer brand leaders 

Three lessons stand out. First, employers should stop treating “culture” as a mood board. Instead, connection in the workplace should remain central and leaders should ask the blunt question: do employees actually have friends here? Second, design for friendship. That means investing in social spaces, shared experiences and employee groups that cut across teams. Third, give managers permission to be human. Training and incentives should focus as much on empathy as they do on efficiency. 

Employer branding is ultimately about proof. You can say you care about belonging, but the true test is whether employees can point to someone in the office who would notice if they were gone. 

Feelings of belonging don't come from tasks, they come from the people you do those tasks alongside.

In the end, the most powerful benefit you can offer is not unlimited annual leave or a perk-filled app. It is the reassurance that, when the day turns sour, as they inevitably will from time to time, there is someone at work who will sit down, listen, and maybe even buy the next coffee. 

SPONSORED by Fathom

Momentum isn’t always progress, especially when you always end up back where you started.

Fathom helps you escape the loop. With insight, not intuition.

Break the Loop

Takeaways

The EBN Dispatch Podcast | Employer Branding & Talent

The EBN Dispatch is your no-fluff podcast on employer branding, talent attraction, retention, and company culture served with dry wit and sharper-than-average insight.

Employer Branding NewsEBN